Description | He is obliged to write before receiving letters from home. William is in a 'miserable state' about his mother [who had recently given birth]. He refers to previous letters which contained an account of the Guildhall breakfast and a visit to High Elms. His only excitement lies in the variety of his legal cases, but these are often the same; he describes a case in which he used cross-examination of witnesses to determine in the plaintiff's favour. He outlines the role of the magistrate, his relationship with the witnesses in a case, and probabilities within testimony, concluding that '9 words out of 10 spoken in a court of justice are lies'. He has spoken with [John James] Gray on the subject, who advised him not to believe a word said in a cutchery, but William disagreed. He is not so much at home in Beauleah, giving his reasons. |